


Making a Plan

by wilddragonflying



Series: Fallout Fic [5]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Kaili gets into the institute, Spoilers, she doesn't like what she finds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 01:04:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17478350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilddragonflying/pseuds/wilddragonflying
Summary: Kaili finally gets into the Institute; it's only a little bit before she starts making a plan.





	Making a Plan

It’s a little over a year since the day Kaili stepped from the Vault for the first time since the bombs dropped when she and the Railroad finally complete the relay interceptor. It’s only strong enough to send one person in, so Kaili has to go alone, but as long as her weapons don’t suddenly vanish then at least if things go tits-up she can put up a fight.

The first thing she does is load up Tommy’s holotape, downloading all the data that it can find; when it finishes, she pockets it, and then looks around. The room she’s in is deserted - a surprise, since she would have thought that the Institute would have known that someone had killed a Courser and then hijacked the signal. Unease rolls in Kaili’s stomach like slow waves on a sea, and she draws her pipe pistol, lowering herself into a crouch as she starts cautiously exploring.

When the voice starts, Kaili jumps, whirling in search of its owner, and finds that it’s coming from speakers; she doesn’t know the speaker, but apparently he knows her, and that’s enough to get every alarm bell in her head ringing full force. Kaili has to force herself to pause, to take deep breaths and count backwards from ten until she can fully focus once more; when she’s ready, she starts moving forward, tracing a path through the Institute to a small elevator, and taking the elevator to what looks like a small medical suite - with Shaun behind a glass wall.

”Shaun?” Kaili breathes, the barrel of her gun lowering in an unconscious gesture. “Shaun, baby, is that you?”

”Who are you?” the boy on the other side of the glass, the one she recognizes from Kellogg’s memories, demands, voice fearful - and oh, what Kaili must look like to a baby who was raised inside the gleaming, pristine walls of the Institute; dressed in ragged flannels and leathers, surrounded by a metal exoskeleton and with weapons hanging off of her like a steel waterfall, she must be the epitome of everything bad the Institute teaches about the Commonwealth, the land full of raiders and barbarians.

”Honey, it’s okay, I’m gonna get you out of here,” Kaili promises, although as of right now she has no idea how the hell she’s supposed to do that - and shit, she should  _not_  have announced her intentions in an area she hasn’t fully reconned, damnit, she knows better.

Her words don’t seem to reassure Shaun, who continues to act frightened, beginning to call out for someone he calls ‘Father.’ “Shaun, who’s Father?” Kaili demands, grip tightening on her pistol. “Why do you keep asking for him?”

There’s a pneumatic  _hiss_  and Kaili whirls towards what she had thought was solid wall revealing itself to be a door. A man steps through, his hair and beard silver, skin the same shade of warm chocolate that Nate’s sister’s had been, face similar enough to Nate’s that Kaili’s heart sinks through her stomach to hover somewhere around her toes.  _What the hell is going on here?_  she wonders - and is answered. “I am Father,” the man says, a small smile playing about his lips as he watches Kaili with an intense gaze. “Though you may know me as Shaun.”

If Kaili had not had the past that she had, if she had not spent the majority of her life operating under pressure, her thoughts might have ground to a dramatic halt then; as it is, they skip and stutter for a moment before everything connects. “The boy’s a synth. Kellogg’s memories - “

”Ah. We had wondered what happened to his memory chip,” Father -  _Shaun_  - muses. “I presume you made use of the facilities in the Memory Den? You would have had to find a compatible synth.”

The barrel of Kaili’s pistol comes up without her permission, the sights trained right between Father’s eyes. “How many years has it been?” she snaps. “No more fucking games.  _How many years?_ ”

Father’s expression softens. “It’s been more than sixty years since I was rescued from the Vault - sixty-three, to be precise.”

Sixty-three years. Kaili herself is now technically two hundred and fifty-five, though she feels like she’s only forty-five; in terms of years actually lived, her baby is older than her. “Why did they take you?” Kaili demands. “Why kidnap a baby?”

”I prefer to think of it as they rescued me,” Father says, apparently unconcerned with the gun still trained on him, because he turns and gestures for Kaili to follow; after a moment’s hesitation, she does. Father leads her through a few more hallways, up a spiralling ramp, and to a room that has a floor-to-ceiling window that, when Kaili investigates, overlooks a courtyard that’s bustling with people; they look a bit like ants, but what Kaili sees amazes her. The whole facility has to be underground, but it’s more high-tech than anything the world had had before the bombs dropped.

”Impressive, isn’t it?” Father asks; in the reflection of the glass, Kaili can see him approaching her from behind. “This is what the Institute always envisioned for the future, and what we envision for the Commonwealth, too, one day. I was the first step towards that. The Institute scientists needed perfect DNA - DNA that hadn’t been affected by radiation. I was the closest they could come to that; an infant preserved in cryostasis. My blood was used to create the newest generation of synths - synths that more closely resemble the people of the Commonwealth than any generation before them.”

”Synths that are used to replace people you’ve kidnapped, you mean?” Kaili bites out. “Don’t pretend that I’m stupid - I’ve spent a year out of the Vault now, traveling the Commonwealth. I know exactly what you people do.”

”You have seen only the side effects,” Father counters. “Allow me to show you the reasoning behind what we do.”

And Kaili, mind already turning, allows him.

* * *

”Well?” Hancock demands when Kaili rematerializes in Sanctuary. “What happened?” The ghoul looks worried, and Kaili gives him a tired smile.

”We need to get to the Railroad,” she says. “I’ll tell you on the way.”

Kaili turns to go gather her things and get Dogmeat, but she’s stopped by Hancock’s rough hand taking hers. When Kaili looks at him in confusion, Hancock asks in that rough voice she’s come to love like the man who owns it, “Are you okay?”

Kaili’s smile this time is sad, but grateful that Hancock even thought to ask, though she shouldn’t be surprised. “No, but I will be,” she says. “This isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever been through.” Hancock knows better than most what ‘the worst thing’ she’s been through is, but he doesn’t look entirely convinced.

Still, he says, “Okay,” before he pulls her back into his arms for a brief but reassuringly crushing hug. “I’m here if it becomes too much.”

Kaili smiles, a real one this time, and returns the hug. “Thanks.”

* * *

It doesn’t take too long to reach the Old North Church and move around the back to enter the back entrance to the Railroad; Desdemona is expecting them, and everyone’s gathered around the center table when Hancock and Kaili enter. “Well?” Desdemona demands as they approach the table. “What did you find?”

”It’s way more high tech than anything we had before the war,” Kaili starts off with - to Hancock, this is nothing new; Kaili already told him about everything on the way to Boston. “Everything there is, and the synths they have implanted in the rest of the Commonwealth aren’t their only means of spying. Before I left, they told me they know about the synths you have waiting at Bunker Hill. They’re planning a raid for tomorrow, and expect me to show up and help the Courser they’re sending.” There are exclamations of outrage and protest, and Kaili waits them out before finishing, “I’m going to sabotage the Courser, of course - put it out of commission, so to speak. When I return to the Institute, I’ll tell them that you moved the synths ahead of whatever plan they thought they knew about.”

”You’re going back?” Tinker Tom demands. “Why?”

”Because the director, a man they all call Father, is my son,” Kaili says simply. “And for some reason, despite having watched me since the day I left the Vault, he trusts me to do what’s best for the Institute. And I’m going to use that.”

”You’re going to infiltrate them,” Desdemona realizes. “Do you understand how risky that is? If they catch you, they’ll kill you if you’re lucky, torture you if you’re not. I can’t let you take this risk, not when you’re still an amateur - “

” _Amateur?_ ” Kaili demands. “Did you not look at the files I showed you? Or have PAM look at them? I am no amateur, and this sure as hell won’t be the first time I’ve infiltrated an enemy base. And even if I get unlucky, what can they do to me? Electrocution? Amputation? Whatever methods of torture have been invented since I was put on ice?” Kaili’s voice grows louder with each sentence until she’s shouting, “There is  _nothing_  they can do to me that I haven’t already survived! You know how to smuggle synths, and that’s good, great even.  _I_  know how to rescue hostages, how to get in and out without being seen and I know how to probe and get information and make the other person think it was all their idea. Don’t you fucking _dare_  ever talk to me like that again, like I haven’t spent longer than you ever dreamed about rescuing synths and playing hero actually in a fucking war - a real war, not some fight for everyday life. I was captured and tortured every day for  _months._  I nearly burned alive trying to rescue hostages of the resource wars. I’ve been through more than you can ever imagine, so don’t you fucking tell me that there’s a risk to infiltrating the Institute because  _I know._  I know, and I’m doing it anyway, and if you won’t back me up then I’ll get the Minutemen - or hell, even the fucking Brotherhood - to help me, so help me God.”

Stunned silence meets her outburst, but Kaili doesn’t let it bother her; she’s got Hancock standing fast at her back, and that’s all she needs. Eventually, Deacon speaks up. “I did look at the records,” he says, almost uncharacteristically serious. “And I don’t doubt that you can do this. You have my support, whatever that means.”

Desdemona’s the next to speak; all she does is nod tersely, saying, “And mine as well. I’ll let you take the lead on the Institute front, and we’ll cover things on our end here in the Commonwealth.”

That’s good enough for Kaili, who nods. “Good. Now, here’s what I’m thinking…”

* * *

The planning session lasts well into the night, and in the end Hancock and Kaili commandeer one of the spare mattresses, curling up together. The last thought that Kaili has before she falls asleep is that the Institute isn’t going to know what hit it.


End file.
